Josh Lilley is proud to present no swan, An exhibition of new works by Providence painter Timothy Lai (b. 1987, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia). The landscape surrounding Li’s home was the main source of inspiration for this series of paintings created last autumn and winter. Salter Grove Memorial Park connects Marsh Island and Rock Island here, with two crescent-shaped piers surrounding small bays along the Providence River. The shores of each island rise low out of the water and are surrounded by boulders and reeds that capture the cobwebs of dawn and frame the view of local waterfowl. Beyond the dock’s arced boundaries, cargo ships rattled low at sea, delivering their daily cargo. You can check the weather conditions from that vantage point and weigh the time remaining before returning home.
Lai walks there, sometimes alone or with his wife and dog. The backgrounds of his paintings are all drawn from life, but in his eyes the success of a particular painting depends on its ability to develop autonomy and move from memory into imagination. For Lai, the landscape and his home are stages of projection, familiar places that facilitate the transition into the curiosity and uncertainty of a rich inner world. His routine formed a daily ritual in which he could center himself to reflect on various relationships and circumstances before beginning to explore them in paintings.
There is an architecture to Lai’s work, an accumulation of short marks applied through meditation that build the structure of the image. They are layered with long, flowing gestures and trailing dry brush stripes to achieve a feel that is both solid and dreamy – an environment that is constantly changing. There’s an earthy feel at the base of his vast palette, a grounded bedrock that spirals out to create vivid illumination. A closer look at his surfaces reveals shades that may appear incongruous in principle, but appear harmonious in a wide variety of marks and tones. Lai’s range of application allows his paintings to arrive at two speeds: their ferocity is balanced by calm considerations. The immediacy of their atmospheric light and dynamic brushwork gives way to an underlying stillness and emotional sensitivity at the heart of each scene.
The themes and staging in Li’s paintings draw on the legacy of suburban aspirations in the work of American painters Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth, as well as the architectural liminism of European modernists Giorgio de Chirico and Yves Tanguy. With or without characters, they are full of presence. The animals in his paintings are familiar objects to his protagonists, vessels of their human protagonists’ drives, and totems of their contemplation. The recurring theme of the swan suggests an unknowable or unreachable character, elegant and aloof. Its presence as a foil symbolizes the yearning in Lai’s work, the desire for connection, intimacy and understanding.
